These are bad days for all of us who remember always that when real world forces come into conflict, the final result is never as dark as we mortals guess it in very difficult days.

Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882-1945), U.S. president. Letter, May 3, 1940, to Joseph P. Kennedy, U.S. Ambassador to Great Britain. The Roosevelt Letters, vol. 3, p. 312, ed. Elliott Roosevelt, George G. Harrup & Co., Ltd. (1952).
Kennedy was worried that Britain might not survive given the combined forces the Allies faced in the Axis powers. Roosevelt agreed that there were dark days ahead, but was convinced that in the end there would be better days ahead.

The only limit to our realization of tomorrow will be our doubts of today. Let us move forward with strong and active faith.

Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882-1945), U.S. president. FDR Speaks authorized edition of speeches, 1933-1945 (recordings of Franklin Roosevelt's public addresses), side 12, undelivered address, Jefferson Day, given here by FDR, Jr. (April 13, 1945), ed. Henry Steele Commager, Introduction by Eleanor Roosevelt, Washington Records, Inc. (1960).
This was FDR's last appeal for Americans to remain united in pursuit of peace as they had remained united in search of victory.

Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882-1945), U.S. president. Edward M. Bennett, Franklin D. Roosevelt and the Search for Security: American-Soviet Relations, 1933-1939, xxii. Interview with Eleanor Roosevelt, Hyde Park, New York (Summer 1959).
Eleanor Roosevelt's recollection of her husband's reaction to Adolf Hitler after listening to his first speech as Chancellor of Germany. She said that her husband never changed his mind about the danger that Hitler posed to the world.

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The loneliest feeling in the world is when you think you are leading the parade and turn to find that no one is following you. No president who badly misguesses public opinion will last very long.

Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882-1945), U.S. president. Interview with former Secretary of Labor Frances Perkins, University of Illinois, Urbana (Spring 1958).
FDR was always conscious of the need to educate the public on important national issues and was determined not to take the lead unless he was reasonably sure of public support. However, he was also extremely adept at providing leadership for the public to educate them to support policies he believed were essential to the public weal. He made this same observation in a letter to a friend with only slightly different wording.

Competition has been shown to be useful up to a certain point and no further, but cooperation, which is the thing we must strive for today, begins where competition leaves off.

Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882-1945), U.S. president. Nathan Miller, F.D.R.: An Intimate History, p. 89, Doubleday & Co. (1983).
This statement from an early campaign speech expressed FDR's faith in cooperative effort against the rugged individualism espoused by the Republican party, and proved a forewarning of his efforts in the New Deal more than 20 years later. In essence, he announced more fealty to Theodore Roosevelt's New Nationalism than to Woodrow Wilson's New Freedom philosophy.